serpent star falling apart

[renisel]

I have had a serpent star in my 75 gallon tank for about 2 months. For the first week or so, it crept around the tank in the open and I tried to spot feed it, but it never seemed interested. After that, I started to notice small sections missing from its skin on its legs and it began hiding a lot more. Then one day I saw one of its legs creeping around the tank; I didn't see the rest of it for the next 4 weeks or so and I assumed it had died until I found it under a rock when I was disassembling the tank to move.
It's been in hiding again for the last few weeks, so I haven't really had any way to spot feed it. Yesterday I saw it crawling around in the open again, but it now only has one leg. Is it more likely that it is being attacked by something, or that it is just malnourished? The animals in the tank that I would think might be harassing it are a tiger pistol shrimp, coral banded shrimp, 2 mythrax crabs and an orangeback basslet. For the time being, I have put the serpent star into a breeder box to protect it from whatever may be trying to eat it, and so that I can make sure it's getting fed. Does anybody have any ideas as to what the problem would be, and how I can help this thing to survive?

 

[dbgator1]

Its tough when they lose that many arms but if they are kept in good water and eating it should grow the arms back. I bought one with a missing arm and within a month it was totally grown back. Good luck they should scavenge but they love meaty foods.

 

[teen]

what is your salinity at?

 

[ophiura]

Yup, there can be no answers really without SPECIFICS on tank parameters, age, etc. This is critical to know. What color is the star? How long did you acclimate it? How long after addition did you notice it started to lose limbs? Did you get this from online, or from an LFS?

 

[renisel]

The tank finished cycling about 3 months ago. I keep the sg pretty constant at 1.024. The temperature is at 78, pH is about 8.4, ammonia and nitrites are 0, nitrates are 10 or less. None of my other inverts or fish seem to be having any problems. The star is a reddish-brown color. I bought it from this site and drip acclimated it over 3 hours or so. After about a week I noticed little nicks in its legs. It was probably after about two weeks that I saw a section of a leg completely removed.

 

[jmpowie]

I had one that did the same thing it was growing great then stated to lose its legs. Not the whole leg but little bits slowly. I put the star in a net cage to keep it away from my fish thinking something was eating it but it did not stop and it ended up dieing. I think it was some sort of bacteira(sp) or something in the water.